Saturday, September 24, 2011

Home with the kids this weekend, I found myself mourning the lack of oats. I never remember to buy these kinds of things. (That would be why I've been out of powdered sugar for a month.)

Six cans of fire roasted tomatoes? Of course. Seventeen thousand pounds of dried beans? Shelved neatly in the freezer. But, nooo, I can never remember things like powdered sugar.

Or oats.

Darn oats.

But, when you think about it, it really isn't about the oats. It's not about the apples, either.

For me...

it is all about the cinnamon.

I adore cinnamon. Vietnamese cinnamon, to be precise. Don't have a favorite cinnamon? For shame. Go to Penzey's as soon as you can and smell the little jars. You'll be able to pick a favorite. (One of my friends is my Penzey's Partner - her favorite is korintje cinnamon - another good one and it's readily available. I have a jar from the supermarket here in town.)

My nine year old's love of cinnamon pretty much only extends to cinnamon rolls. Cinnamon rolls were my Everest for the longest time and I've finally found a recipe that we love. That said - I may have a new favorite.

Gluten-Free dough is sticky, by nature. It's workable, don't get me wrong, and when you adjust to wetting your hands and utilizing parchment or a silpat, it's much easier. But, it's still a pain. Heck, it was a pain to make regular cinnamon rolls. It's a labor of love. I'm willing to do it... twice a year. But, it isn't something I really enjoy doing.

I mean, how do you think Cinnabon got so popular? Because a good cinnamon roll is rare enough. But even if you have an amazing recipe, you still have to do all that work - in all those steps.

So, I set out to eliminate some of that. Udi's has a pretty good little product that they call a cinnamon roll, but the textures not quite right. It's more of a cinnamon muffin. And when you're all about the cinnamon, there's a significant lack of gooey, sweet, buttery cinnamon swirl.

(you could technically use an equal amount of applesauce, but we're about to get butter loco)

Top layer:

1 cup of Earth Balance (or nondairy margarine or butter)

1 cup of brown sugar, packed

2TBSP flour

1 TBSP cinnamon

Optional: 1/2 cup chopped pecans or a diced green apple

(I added the latter since my daughter doesn't care for pecans.)

You can figure this part out, right? Mix stuff until it's dough. Awesome. Good job.

Spread it in a 9x13. You can use a spatula/spoonula or just moistened, clean hands.

Make the top layer by combining the earth balance, brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Drop by spoonfuls on top of your base layer, or spread. Whatever makes you happy.

With the side of a spatula or the back of a wooden spoon, swirl spirals into the dough to give it that cinnamon roll look. (I mean, let's be honest, you don't have to. It's going to taste just as good.)

It will look something like this (minus the green, if you don't have apples in yours.)

Yum, right?

Preheat the oven to 350° and bake for about 40 minutes. It will puff all the way to the top of the pan, then fall a bit as it cools. Don't sweat it.

You can top with a cream cheese frosting (nondairy for our crew) or an easy powdered sugar glaze (just thin out some powdered sugar with a few teaspoons of "milk" and drizzle over the top)

Sorry I had to zoom in on one swirl. I swear it's not because the corner was missing at this point.

I also swear I didn't burn my fingers on hot sugar. Or something.

With glaze added (honestly? Unnecessary and a tad too sweet with glaze, for my liking. But that gooey cinnamon butter stuff you see right there at the top? Oh yeah. You need to taste that.)

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

A friend of mine posted recently that she was making an apple crisp. I, of course, couldn't keep my big mouth shut and started yapping about how I had a great recipe. there goes the diet

So, of course, I had to make one. Let's be reasonable here. It's what a good friend would do. The topic also led me to wax poetic about the joys of an apple peeler/corer/slicer. Seriously, it's a gem of a gadget. But, you can absolutely peel and cut them to your heart's content.

This isn't really a recipe as much as a method of decoration, but I'm putting it up for a friend.

I've just discovered Earth Balance Baking Sticks. They're as awesome as my favorite earth balance, but they have a lower melting point (or some other scientific semantics that I won't bore you with). Bottom line is - they make DELICIOUS cookies. And dream cheese frosting (I totally just made that up. It's vegan, made with tofutti "cream cheese.")

My oldest turned 14 last week and is a lover of all things cookie cake. She asks for one every year, and it's something I'm always happy to do. (hey, no rolling out fondant or icing two dozen cupcakes? I'm down!)

I set out to find some way to decorate her cookie cake so that it felt - festive. I considered stacking, layering, icing in between, cookie sandwiches, decorating on top, you name it. Ultimately, I decided to "decorate" with nondairy chocolate chips.

I made a double batch of my favorite cookie dough, sans chips. Spread about a quarter of the batter into an 8" cake pan. (It helps to have oiled or moistened hands, as is usually the case with gluten free batters/doughs) Smooth it out. Then press the chips in however your heart desires. My heart desired Jack Skellington. (the mouth got a little distorted as it rose in the pan, so you might want to not get so close to the edge).

The result? Outstandingly delicious, ooey, gooey, soft, delicious mall-quality cookies. I'm not kidding. And not a bit of dairy or gluten. You would never have known!